The MBTA Narrowly Avoided the Curse of the Josh Beckett Decal

Transit officials finally got rid of the photo of the former pitcher at Kenmore Station.

In a show of good sportsmanship, the MBTA took down a decal of former Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett, which was lingering on the walls of a kiosk at Kenmore Station, prior to the start of Game 1 of the World Series at Fenway.

Kenmore is the main station for sports fans shuffling out of the park, trying to get home, to pick up the Green Line and get out of the city.

Since the 2011 chicken-and-beer collapseâ€”and eventual Beckett backlashâ€”the decal has been haunting the station. That is, until someone complained about it on Tuesday, and the MBTA promptly tended to the problem by replacing Beckettâ€™s mug with a photo of current Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester.

Lester is pitching in Game 1 of the series tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The sign change happened around 1 p.m., according to T spokesman Joe Pesaturo, after employees from the transit agencyâ€™s sign shop created the decal. â€śBeckett can’t help us beat the Cardinals,â€ť Pesaturo said in an email.

The complaint about the Beckett decal first came from Paul McNamara of Networkworld.com. McNamara said a friend from his fantasy league sent him the photo of the former pitcher, and agreed it was time to do some housecleaning on the T.

â€śAfter all, it’s been 14 months since Red Sox management bamboozled the Los Angeles Dodgers into a lopsided trade that sent a trio of Boston’s malcontent ballplayersâ€”Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalezâ€”packing for the West Coast,â€ť he said. â€śThis housecleaning enabled the team to make a number of quality free-agent signings and was the move most responsible for the team’s 2013 resurgence.â€ť